Sunrise Cleaners at 60 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue will be closing soon.
An EVG reader and Sunrise customer reports that the landlord (Tomar Equities) offered Susan the owner a 5-year-lease renewal with a 66-percent rent increase. Which is insane and the reality around here.
A listing shows an asking rent of $4,500 for 525 square feet.
66 percent rent increase. It's just remarkable. What type of world in this, what type of people own our neighborhoods?
ReplyDeleteEast 3rd street between first and Second Aves does not have enough foot traffic to support any type of retail. This storefront has been many types of shops over the year, but none has lasted very long. It is not a block where food can thrive either. The Taco place next door which is very, very good has had to scale back their hours, and business is not booming. Sunrise Cleaners was the only business that was able to thrive in that space. I can't imagine the type of business can take take the ridiculously high rent and tiny space and be able to thrive there.
ReplyDeleteI noticed around the city that many dry cleaners are gone.
ReplyDelete@Anon. 9:51 - you asked, " what type of people own our neighborhoods?" It used to be people who owned one, maybe two buildings, who usually lived in them themselves, or nearby. Small landlords who were part of the community, who shopped in the same stores as their tenants, who went to the same churches, who shared the same kind of background, lifestyle, and often ethnicity. Now it's none of those things - it's strangely-named anonymous conglomerates who know nothing about the neighborhood save that there is money to be made on it, who live in distant locations where the problems they create when they carpetbag in can be ignored, or it's rich speculators with more money than heart, or it's the scions of real estate families determined to top their daddies in making real estate mayhem. None of them give a shit about anything but profit, and as a result the fables, storied New York City of the past has been ripped away at lightning speed by these predators, who leave nothing but sorrow and destruction in their wake. A plague on all their houses.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Hell's Angels across the street installed their own washer/drier in the clubhouse, well that was the final straw.
ReplyDeleteHello...City Council? You can't have a functioning neighborhood without essential services like dry cleaners.
ReplyDeleteI just need to speak up, the solution is something that includes luxury and alcohol and facebook. The pod people always win.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Gojira. Sadly accurate... And yes - A plague on all their houses.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to New York!
ReplyDeleteI live steps away from this cleaner, but I always walk further to the cleaner on the corner of 1st Ave because they are nicer and significantly better.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I used Sunrise, I came back 4 or 5 days later to pick up my stuff and Susan just said "Oh, we never sent yours out to get cleaned". No "sorry", no explanation, just completely failed service.
Good riddance.
I seem to remember the tenant before Sunrise Cleaners was Jammyland, and before that was an artist who rented the space for her studio. (That was back in the 80s.)
ReplyDeleteLooks like we can kiss the good old days goodbye.